The Broighter Gold Torc (Close-up)
1st Century BCE. An icon of
Celtic-style goldsmithing.

Celtic Art in Britain & Ireland

Britain and Ireland did not participate
in the genesis of Celtic art; indeed, it
is not clear whether at that time they were even occupied by people speaking
Celtic languages. A strong insular tradition lay outside the main-stream
of West European development, and it is ironic that the area where Celtic
languages now survive was originally the most marginal and last to be
incorporated within the world of Celtic culture.

The Petrie Crown (100-200 BCE)
A unique example of Celtic
precious metalwork of the late
Iron Age.

Nevertheless, a pattern of political and
trading contacts with the Continent, involving the importation of items
of fine metalwork and perhaps from time to time also movements of population,
had existed even in the Late Bronze Age, and areas of the eastern coast
of England - the Thames Estuary, East Anglia, the Yorkshire Wolds - provided
foci of interest in the new styles of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.
However, few direct imports of early Celtic art are known - none until
the third century - and then only at scattered find-spots in the Thames
Basin, Wales and Ireland.

What is remarkable, then, is the speed
and confidence with which distinctively insular styles of Celtic
designs grew up from the later third century BCE onwards, on the basis
of features of the continental Sword Style with local innovations in conception
and treatment. Sword-scabbards, shields, and the unique piece of horse's
head-armour from Torrs in Scotland, form a first generation of insular
products, based on bold repousse work and fine engraved decoration such
as flowing, linear scrollwork.

The rise of an important East Anglican
school of gold-working, using plastic designs cast in relief, was a significant
innovation and it was paralleled in the production of a magnificent series
of engraved bronze mirrors whose large, circular fields allowed the development
of intricately filled but symmetrically balanced compositions. The use
of hatching developed in the latter context as a way of defining ornament
on extensive, flat surfaces. These new styles were reflected in a second
generation of weaponry, such as scabbards with plastic decoration and
hatching.

ART IN IRELAND
For facts and information about the
evolution of painting & sculpture
in Munster, Leinster, Connacht and
Ulster, see: History of Irish art.

As the Roman frontier drew nearer, and
eastern England in particular grew rich from trade across the North Sea,
new forms of decorated objects became common and technological changes,
such as the use of enamel, took place. Horse-gear became an important
medium for display, through the rein-rings and attachments which were
often decorated in colourful enamel. Vessels for drinking and serving
imported wine or native brews became more common, as the aristocratic
families imitated southern modes of life.

When the Romans finally conquered what
is now England, the free Celtic areas beyond the frontier, in Ireland
and Scotland, continued to provide contexts in which craftsmen could exercise
their skills in the service of warlike masters who wished to continue
the wearing of traditional symbols of wealth and power.

EVOLUTION OF THE
ARTS
For a chronological list of dates
and events in the development
of painting, sculpture, ceramics
and metalwork, please see:History of Art Timeline.
For details
of the evolution of artworks from
the Stone Age epoch, please see:Prehistoric Art Timeline.
For an outline of later styles,
see; History of Art.

It was not until about 300 BCE that the
first elements of Celtic La Tene
art from the Continent arrived in Ireland. Amongst the earliest objects
is a gold torc from the west of the country, found in a bog at Clonmacnoise,
Co Offaly, which might have been imported from the Rhineland. Within a
generation or two, crafts centres
were established, notably in the north-east of Ireland, which produced
Celtic metalwork
of the highest technical and artistic excellence. Such a centre must have
existed at or near the site of a major hoard of metal objects found in
the last century at Lisnacrogher, Co. Antrim. Here there were armouries
producing spears, finely-wrought swords, and bronze scabbards which were
engraved along their length with flowing, freehand vegetal designs of
leafy spirals, S-scrolls and wave-tendrils. Such motifs have their ultimate
background in Continental Waldalgesheim
ornament and display artistic inspiration from as far away as the Middle
Danube.

By the birth of Christ the introduced art
style is transformed by the stamp of insular personality. Ornament becomes
increasingly dependent on the compass and compositions are more formalized
and geometrically arranged. In time, the trumpet curve appears and is
used long after the introduction of Christianity. Ornamental design is
two-dimensional or in the round, engraved in metal, bone or stone or cast
or hammered in bronze and, irrespective of the medium, there is great
artistic homogeneity across the country.

A whole range of native types appears,
high-quality items undoubtedly produced under the patronage of a ruling
aristocratic elite. Elegantly-cast bridle-bits of bronze are particularly
common, but small dress-fasteners of bronze, frequently embellished with
elaborate cast or engraved designs are also known. In Ireland, as in Britain,
the use of red enamel was an important innovation of this period. Gold
is rare but the superb Broighter
collar from Broighter, Co. Derry, with raised scrolls and background
engraving, is an outstanding masterpiece of Late La Tene craftsmanship.
Impressive too, are the great, curved, sheet-bronze trumpets.

A small group of exceptional bronzes, dating to the early centuries CE,
represents the climax of Irish La Tene craftsmanship. These include two
fragmentary head-pieces, one from Cork, the other unlocalized - the so-called
Petrie Crown - and a small,
dished disc from the River Bann. On these there is raised, fine-line ornament
of consummate delicacy, produced, either wholly or in part, by background
tooling of the bronze.

Celtic art in Ireland, as elsewhere, is essentially abstract. Birds' heads
are, however, by no means infrequent and their presence may well have
been imbued with votive undertones. The finest ornithomorphic renderings
are on two cast-bronze cup handles, notably that from Keshcarrigan, Co.
Leitrim. Animals are virtually unknown. The human form, too, is only occasionally
found in metal but there is a series of carved stone heads which shows
that Ireland shared with the rest of Celtic Europe a veneration for the
human head. A single, crudely impressive human carving in wood from Co.
Cavan serves as a reminder of what must once have existed in this material.

Ireland, never occupied by Roman legions, ensured the continuity of Celtic
art into the period of developed Christianity and it was here that the
Celtic tradition blossomed, culminating in the masterpieces of early
Christian art of the eighth and ninth centuries.

This relatively late piece, made not long before the Roman conquest, was
found with other pieces of horse gear. It demonstrates the way in which
the use of red champlevé
enamelling was used to create a contrasting background on a flat surface,
in the same manner as hatching and relief work.

This parade shield, found in the River Thames, has an unusual fourfold
symmetry. Its simple, well-spaced designs in broad circular fields contrast
with the narrower, vertical emphasis of earlier examples. The glass roundels
are used in the same way as coral studs.

This concave knob with a circular panel of ornament in low relief was
probably the yoke terminal of a chariot. Although most writers have seen
its vegetal tendrils as closely related to the Waldalgesheim style, its
symmetry also could suggest a later date, perhaps contemporary with the
mirror series.

This unique object is a pastiche of a shallow pony cap (with holes for
the ears) and a pair of curved tubular terminals, probably derived from
a pair of drinking horns. The ornament of the cap, decorated with disciplined
repousse scrolls, has been repaired several times. Bird-heads and engraved
scrolls in the style of the early shields or of the Witham locket pattern
the horns.

This tubular gold bracelet displays repousse ornament in the "Snettisham"
style common to goldwork from East Anglia. The style was named after a
gold torc found nearby. The mirror-image across the longitudinal axis
of a running scroll, which defines a series of pelta-shaped voids, produces
a balanced but dynamic pattern.

This example belongs to tall shields, decorated with repousse bosses which
are linked by a vertical spine to terminal roundels at the top and bottom.
The high relief of the central boss, garnished with well preserved coral
settings, is composed of opposing circular voids formed by a rotating
scroll pattern, which creates a strong sense of movement. The terminal
roundels contain engraved scrollwork in the style of the Torrs horn-terminals.

This boss, known as the "long" or "mask" boss to distinguish
it from another, circular example from the same stretch of river, is decorated
with high relief repousse work in the form of two diagonally opposed bird's
heads which constitute part of a rotating scroll. This pattern ends at
the top (and probably, originally, at the bottom) in a mask, similar in
kind to those which on other shields.

Carnyxes are wine instruments which were used widely in Iron Age warfare,
and were represented, for example, on the Gundestrup cauldron. Carried
vertically, the carnyx takes the form of a long tube, which terminates
in an animal's head. This particular terminal represents a boar, and when
found it had a wooden clapper in its mouth.

These are bronze mounts belonging to a wooden stave bucket used for serving
drink, The three-footed bucket is sheathed with three bronze bands and
the uppermost band is decorated with repousse work, where the repetitive
motifs indicate the use of a stencil. The most notable feature is the
handles, solid castings which stand up from the rim and take the form
of plumed human heads.

Found in a bog with a gold ribbon torc; the buffers at the front of this
gold torc are decorated with repousse scrolls highlighted by background
stippling. The "box" at back has raised, interlocking ribs patterned
with a meander ornament of applied gold wire. The clasp mechanism operates
by inserting one of the side tubes into the hollow buffers and securing
it in position by inserting a transverse pin.

Object: Loughnashade Bronze Trumpet
Disc, 100 BCE - 100 CE
Location: Loughnashade (Co. Armagh), Ulster
Museum: National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
This object was found in a lake with three similar specimens which are
now lost. Raised hammered ornament is arranged symmetrically around the
mouth of the trumpet so that one half is the mirror image of the other.
The design on each side is organized, around a running wave pattern which
terminates in boss-ended spirals and sub-peltate motifs.

The engraved, free-hand ornament on this scabbard plate is based on a
sequence of four S-figures with thin tendril-like stems which tail off,
at the broken end, into a squashed "running-dog". Typical of
the Irish scabbards is their short length.

Found with other gold objects in a flood plain, the relief decoration
on this gold torc is hammered on the tubes and is constructed of stretched
and interlocking S-scrolls in combination with trumpet curves, snail-shell
spirals and other motifs, all of which are set off by a background aT
overlapping compass-drawn arcs. The terminals, one of which retains the
original granulation imitating tiny pearls, were made separately.

This cast disc, gently convex in shape and of unknown function is decorated
with a raised fine-line ornament produced by hand-tooling. The design,
compass-drawn, consists of a central whirligig from which springs an open-armed,
spiral-ended triskele. The ends of the triskel are formed into stylized
birds' heads.

One of a pair, this horse-bit was found in a bog with other harness items.
Cast decoration, composed of opposing S-scrolls and elongated ovals combine
to form a series of sub-peltate figures on the side-links.

 For more about painters and sculptors,
see: Famous Irish Artists.
 For information about the artistic history of Ireland, see: Irish
Art Guide.
 For more on the history of Celtic crafts in Britain, see: Homepage.